A beautifully illustrated study of the Battle of North Cape in 1943, a
dramatic clash of British and German battleships in the North Sea which
resulted in the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst.
The German battleship Scharnhorst had a reputation for being a lucky
ship. Early in the war, she fought off a British battlecruiser and sunk
a carrier before carrying out two successful forays into the Atlantic.
In the spring of 1943, the Scharnhorst was redeployed to Norway.
There, working in concert with other German warships such as the
battleship Tirpitz, she posed a major threat to the Arctic convoys-the
Allied sea lifeline to Russia. Over the next six months, she made two
forays into the Barents Sea, but saw no action, save for the shelling of
Spitzbergen. However, her presence, alongside Tirpitz, forced the
British to tie down ships in Arctic waters.
When Tirpitz was put out of action, and Hitler demanded naval support
for the war in Russia, the crew of the Scharnhorst had to act. In late
December 1943, she put to sea, flying the flag of Rear-Admiral Bey. Her
target was an Allied convoy, JW55B, which was passing through the
Barents Sea on its way to Murmansk. Unknown to Bey, Admiral Fraser,
commanding the British Home Fleet, was using the convoy as bait to draw
the Scharnhorst into battle. What followed was a two-day running
battle fought in rough seas and near-perpetual darkness, ending with the
destruction of the Scharnhorst and all but 36 of her crew. The loss of
Scharnhorst ended any serious German naval threat to the Arctic convoy
lifeline.
In this illustrated study, Angus Konstam, one of Britain's premier naval
historians, offers a fascinating new insight into this key engagement,
combining expert analysis with his unique knack for storytelling to
offer a fascinating new perspective on the battle which sank the
Scharnhorst.
